In March 2015, it was reported in The Verge that Amazon will be removing non-compete clauses of 18 months in length from its US employment contracts for hourly-paid workers, after criticism that it was acting unreasonably in preventing such employees from finding other work. Even short-term temporary workers have to sign contracts that prohibit them from working at any company where they would "directly or indirectly" support any good or service that competes with those they helped support at Amazon, for 18 months after leaving Amazon, even if they are fired or made redundant.[190][191]

Enjoy music in a new way with this crazy looking speaker that won't just look good in whatever room adding a touch of modern design but offer a precise wireless solution to play your music. Newegg is offering these speakers for a $110.99 w/ free shipping but enter the promo code and it drops to just $99.89. Alternatively, I found the same speaker listing for $149.95 on Walmart's site. More Info »
There's really no reason to pay full retail price for most products because there are so many resources on the Web that can help you compare prices, score discounts and get the best deals. Here are 15 of our favorite sites that can help you save money when you shop online. And all have free mobile apps that you can use when you're in brick-and-mortar stores or on the go.
PayLessDeal is one of the best price comparison websites on the Australian market. Australians can easily find the great deals on millions of products. The price comparison website has countless product categories listed on their website making it more likely that dropshipped products are on the platform. Store owners interested in doing market research can easily find what products local Australian businesses are selling.
Disclosure: This post is brought to you by the Insider Picks team. We aim to highlight products and services you might find interesting, and if you buy them, we get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. We frequently receive products free of charge from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. We operate independently from our advertising sales team. We welcome your feedback. Want to get in touch? Email us at insiderpicks@businessinsider.com.
BuyVia’s price comparison app shows the best prices from sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and more. Customers can scan barcodes and QR codes. Customers can also customize the app to only show relevant offers and products. This price comparison shopping app also notifies you when there are sales on the categories of products that you select when you initially set up the app. Another thing you can do is create price drop alerts for any specific items, to get the best price guarantee for the products that you’re looking for.
Sowtech-US via Amazon offers its Sowtech 6-in-1 Cordless Handheld Vacuum Cleaner in Red for $79.99. Coupon code "E6GSQ4JW" cuts it to $47.99. With free shipping, that's $32 off and the lowest price we could find, although it was $5 less back in July. It features a lifetime stainless steel filter, up to 35 minutes of run-time per charge, and six accessories. Deal ends November 22.
Brilliance Audio is an audiobook publisher founded in 1984 by Michael Snodgrass in Grand Haven, Michigan.[93] The company produced its first 8 audio titles in 1985.[93] The company was purchased by Amazon in 2007 for an undisclosed amount.[94][95] At the time of the acquisition, Brilliance was producing 12–15 new titles a month.[95] It operates as an independent company within Amazon.

Prime membership will set you back $12.99/£7.99 per month ($6.49 if you're a student) or $119/£79 annually. But if you're not a Prime subscriber already and don't want to commit, you can sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial and you'll be eligible for Lightening deals (as well as all the other Prime benefits). You can then cancel any time within that 30 days with no strings attached. Just don’t sign up yet – wait until 1st November.

Sign up for the Chase Freedom Unlimited® Card and earn a $150 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first three months from account opening. Plus, receive a 0% Intro APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers. (After that, variable APR, currently 16.99% - 25.74%.) Other card features include earning unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase. It's automatic! Redeem for cash back - any amount, anytime and your Cash Back rewards do not expire as long as your account is open. Plus, there's no annual fee. For more terms and conditions, click here.

Premium TV Deals - Amazon was the winner when it came to the cheapest possible TV deals, but Best Buy offered higher quality TV deals. Last year, it sold a Sharp 50-inch 4K TV for $179.99 (review deal) and a 55-inch Toshiba 4K UHD TV for $279.99 (review deal). Factoring in price and quality, those were arguably the top two TV deals of the year. Unfortunately, both TVs were available in-store only, but it was well worth the trip if getting the best deal was your goal.
Dell Home offers the LG 74.5" 4K HDR Flat LED Ultra HD Smart Television, model no. 75SK8070PUA, bundled with a $200 Dell Gift Card for $1,997 with free shipping. (The gift card will arrive via email 10 to 20 days from ship date.) Assuming you'll use the gift card, that's $2 under last month's mention and the lowest price we could find now by $200. Features include:
In November 2015, Amazon opened its first physical bookstore location. It is named Amazon Books and is located in University Village in Seattle. The store is 5,500 square feet and prices for all products match those on its website.[149] Amazon will open its tenth physical book store in 2017;[150] media speculation suggests Amazon plans to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country.[149] Amazon plans to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.[151]
On October 16, 2016, Apple filed a trademark infringement case against Mobile Star LLC for selling counterfeit Apple products to Amazon. In the suit, Apple provided evidence that Amazon was selling these counterfeit Apple products and advertising them as genuine. Through purchasing, Apple was able to identify that nearly 90% of the Apple accessories sold and fulfilled by Amazon were counterfeit. Amazon was sourcing and selling items without properly determining if they are genuine. Mobile Star LLC settled with Apple for an undisclosed amount on April 27, 2017.[164]
Things tend to get lost in the move—like a few decorations, your favorite shirt, and for whatever reason a complete knife set. If you're not looking to spend too much, this colorful, stainless steel set from Vremi is one of the best knife sets we've tested under $100 and will help make your kitchen feel a little more together. They come with hard plastic covers that are ideal for storage and right now, you can get them at their lowest price. They're not the sharpest knives out there, but they make a great set for a basic kitchen.
Price Runner’s UK price comparison website compares websites from top retailers such as Amazon, ASOS, House of Fraser, and other top UK brands. Store owners can compare prices with reputable brands to determine how to best price the products on their website. This price comparison website has a fresh and easy-to-use interface, with a rather modern outlook. You even have access to price histories, price alerts, price information, and reviews. And if you prefer to buy the product locally, it’ll even direct you on where to go.
Offers.com features deals from more than 6,000 companies and stores, updated daily and organized into 300 categories including clothing, electronics, toys and travel. You can search by store and brand, by type of offer (coupon code, in-store offer, etc.) and by holiday and event (back-to-school deals, Black Friday deals, etc.). Offers.com also points you to local deals in more than 75 cities.
In September 2017, Amazon announced plans to locate a second headquarters in a metropolitan area with at least a million people.[45] Cities needed to submit their presentations by October 19, 2017 for the project called HQ2.[46] The $5 billion second headquarters, starting with 500,000 square feet and eventually expanding to as much as 8 million square feet, may have as many as 50,000 employees.[47] In 2017, Amazon announced it would build a new downtown Seattle building with space for Mary's Place, a local charity in 2020.[48]
Twitch is a live streaming platform for video, primarily oriented towards video gaming content. The service was first established as a spin-off of a general-interest streaming service known as Justin.tv. Its prominence was eclipsed by that of Twitch, and Justin.tv was eventually shut down by its parent company in August 2014 in order to focus exclusively on Twitch.[104] Later that month, Twitch was acquired by Amazon for $970 million.[105] Through Twitch, Amazon also owns Curse, Inc., an operator of video gaming communities and a provider of VoIP services for gaming.[106] Since the acquisition, Twitch began to sell games directly through the platform,[107] and began offering special features for Amazon Prime subscribers.[108]
Bezos selected the name Amazon by looking through the dictionary; he settled on "Amazon" because it was a place that was "exotic and different", just as he had envisioned for his Internet enterprise. The Amazon River, he noted, was the biggest river in the world, and he planned to make his store the biggest bookstore in the world.[25] Additionally, a name that began with "A" was preferential due to the probability it would occur at the top of an alphabetized list.[25] Bezos placed a premium on his head start in building a brand and told a reporter, "There's nothing about our model that can't be copied over time. But you know, McDonald's got copied. And it's still built a huge, multibillion-dollar company. A lot of it comes down to the brand name. Brand names are more important online than they are in the physical world."[26]
Junglee is a former online shopping service provided by Amazon that enabled customers to search for products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee started off as a virtual database that was used to extract information off the internet and deliver it to enterprise applications. As it progressed, Junglee started to use its database technology to create a single window marketplace on the internet by making every item from every supplier available for purchase. Web shoppers could locate, compare and transact millions of products from across the Internet shopping mall through one window.[114]

In November 2015, Amazon opened its first physical bookstore location. It is named Amazon Books and is located in University Village in Seattle. The store is 5,500 square feet and prices for all products match those on its website.[149] Amazon will open its tenth physical book store in 2017;[150] media speculation suggests Amazon plans to eventually roll out 300 to 400 bookstores around the country.[149] Amazon plans to open brick and mortar bookstores in Germany.[151]

This week, Sony revealed a new miniature PlayStation, Nintendo launched its online service, a bundle of Apple products started shipping, and Amazon put its Kindles and other top devices on sale as it showed off a heap of new products. With the help of TechBargains, we've put together the best deals of the week so you can sift through the savings without hassle.

MyUS has made every effort to provide the best available shopping options for our members. However, some merchants listed may have established purchase restrictions, may not take all forms of payment or may restrict purchases to certain countries. Always check the merchant’s site for terms of sale, shipping guidelines or terms and conditions for more information.

SZBecky via Amazon offers the Becky Windproof Compact Travel Umbrella in Water Wood Handle for $21.99. Coupon code "359N9EDQ" cuts it to $14.29. Plus, Prime members receive free shipping. That's $8 off and the lowest price we could find. It features a 1-button automatic open/close, 10 reinforced fiberglass ribs, and 40" canopy with Dupont Teflon coating. Deal ends October 30.
As one of its daily deals, That Daily Deal offers the American Apparel Men's Tri-Blend Ultra-Soft Short-Sleeve T-Shirt 12-Pack for $23.88 with free shipping. That's the lowest price we could find for this quantity by $27 and the best per-unit price we've seen at $1.99 per shirt. (We saw a 5-pack for $22 two weeks ago.) These USA-made shirts are available in size S only. Deal ends October 30.

Everybody loves the Instant Pot, right? People can't stop talking about how easy it is to make dinner with thanks to it's pressure cooking technology. It's perfect for busy nights or to gift your friend who loves to cook. Right now, you can get one for just $85. It's not the lowest price we've ever seen, but it's still worth it if you’re itching to start cooking or want to beat the holiday rush and guarantee you get one for those on your holiday gift list.

Sowtech-US via Amazon offers its Sowtech 6-in-1 Cordless Handheld Vacuum Cleaner in Red for $79.99. Coupon code "E6GSQ4JW" cuts it to $47.99. With free shipping, that's $32 off and the lowest price we could find, although it was $5 less back in July. It features a lifetime stainless steel filter, up to 35 minutes of run-time per charge, and six accessories. Deal ends November 22.

CamelCamelCamel is a price comparison platform for Amazon. Customers can look through great deals that motivate them into an impulse purchase. The website lists the current price, the average price from various sellers and the list price to show customers the deal they’re getting from buying the product on Amazon. It also features product price drops which can be valuable for store owners looking to get a competitive edge. The great thing about this comparison shopping engine is that if you want to compare amazon prices, you’ll also be presented with “3rd Party New” and “3rd Party Used” product prices, so that you can find the best deals online. That’s why, if you’re looking for a fast Amazon price check, CamelCamelCamel is the right comparison shopping engine for you.

ShopSavvy is a price comparison app that allows you to scan barcodes in store. You’ll be able to see prices for both physical and online stores. The app does a price comparison, showcases product reviews, and helps customers find the best deals. But it’s functions don’t end there. This comparison shopping engine also allows you to set up notifications for specific categories, items, or searches so that you can get notified instantly if there’s a sale on your selected items, or if it’s available in store again. As one of the most popular price comparison apps, ShopSavvy has over 100 million downloads. The platform receives over 50 million product scans each month.

Use Amazon Smile to give back to charity when you shop. You can choose an organization dear (or local) to you and shop as normal. However, it's important to note that only about 0.5% of every purchase makes its way to charity, and you might do more good by giving more tangibly elsewhere. However, if you don't let shopping through Amazon Smile negate all the good you would have done otherwise, it's a great way to maximize your shopping.